Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid jet head and a liquid jet apparatus that jet and record liquid droplets on a recording medium.
Related Art
In recent years, liquid jet heads of an ink jet system, which eject ink droplets on a recording paper or the like to record characters and figures, or eject a liquid material on a surface of an element substrate to forma functional thin film, are used. This system introduces a liquid such as ink or the liquid material from a liquid tank to a channel through a supply tube, and applies pressure to the liquid, which is filled in the channel, to eject the liquid through a nozzle communicated with the channel. When ejecting the liquid, the system moves a liquid jet head and a recording medium to record the characters and figures or to form a functional thin film having a predetermined shape.
FIGS. 9A and 9B are explanatory diagrams of this sort of liquid jet head described in JP 2009-500209 W. FIG. 9A is a schematic cross-sectional view of a channel portion, and FIG. 9B is a perspective view of the channel portion from which a nozzle plate is removed. A piezoelectric material 1501 is provided on a base 1502. The piezoelectric material 1501 includes discharge channels 1508 and non-discharge channels 1510 that are partitioned by operation side walls 1507 and are alternately arranged. Channel extending areas 1504 are continuously provided at upper portions of the discharge channels 1508, and open upward. The discharge channels 1508 and the non-discharge channels 1510 alternately open upward and downward. A nozzle plate 1505 in which nozzles 1506 open adheres to an upper portion of the channel extending areas 1504. That is, a side shooter type liquid jet head that discharges liquid droplets from the discharge channels 1508 to a surface of the base 1502 in a vertical direction is provided. A liquid such as ink is circulated and filled from one side to the other side of a longitudinal direction of the channels. Electrodes 1511 are formed on surfaces of the operation side walls 1507 that partition the discharge channels 1508 and the non-discharge channels 1510. A drive signal is applied to the electrodes 1511 and the operation side walls 1507 are operated, pressure is applied to the ink in the discharge channels 1508, and the ink droplets are ejected through the nozzles 1506.
JP 07-205422 A, JP 08-258261 A, JP 11-314362 A, and JP 10-86369 A describe liquid jet heads in which grooves that serve as channels alternately open in an up and down direction of the longitudinal direction of the channels, similarly to JP 2009-500209 W. In JP 07-205422 A, JP 08-258261 A, JP 11-314362 A, and JP 10-86369 A, edge shooter type liquid jet heads formed of channel rows arranged in a line in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the channels, and which discharge the liquid droplets from one side end portions of the longitudinal direction of discharge channels, are described.
Although JP 2009-500209 W describes the channel rows arranged in a line in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the channels, JP 2009-500209 W does not describe forming a plurality of channel rows, or forming narrow intervals of the plurality of channel rows with high density. Similarly, JP 07-205422 A, JP 08-258261 A, JP 11-314362 A, and JP 10-86369 A do not describe forming a plurality of channel rows, and forming narrow intervals of the plurality of channel rows.
Further, in the liquid jet head described in JP 2009-500209 W, the liquid is filled in both of the discharge channels 1508 and the non-discharge channels 1510, and thus the liquid comes in contact with surfaces of the electrodes of the both channels. Therefore, when a conductive ejection liquid is used, it is necessary to install protective films or the like on the surfaces of the electrodes 1511 and the base 1502, and therefore, a manufacturing process steps become complicated and long.